Our understanding of diseases has been transformed by the realisation that people are holobionts, comprised of a host and its associated microbiome(s). Disease can also have devastating effects on populations of marine organisms, including dominant habitat formers such as seaweed holobionts. However, we know very little about how interactions between microorganisms within microbiomes - of humans or marine organisms - affect host health and there is no underpinning theoretical framework for exploring this. We applied ecological models of succession to bacterial communities to understand how interactions within a seaweed microbiome affect the host. We observed succession of surface microbiomes on the red seaweed Delisea pulchra in situ, following a disturbance, with communities 'recovering' to resemble undisturbed states after only 12 days. Further, if this recovery was perturbed, a bleaching disease previously described for this seaweed developed. Early successional strains of bacteria protected the host from colonisation by a pathogenic, later successional strain. Host chemical defences also prevented disease, such that within-microbiome interactions were most important when the host's chemical defences were inhibited. This is the first experimental evidence that interactions within microbiomes have important implications for host health and disease in a dominant marine habitat-forming organism.
1.Univ New South Wales, Ctr Marine Bioinnovat, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 2.Univ New South Wales, Sch Biol Earth & Environm Sci, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 3.Singapore Ctr Environm Life Sci Engn, 60 Nanyang Dr,SBS-01N-27, Singapore 637551, Singapore 4.Sydney Inst Marine Sci, Chowder Bay Rd, Mosman, NSW 2088, Australia 5.Univ Sunshine Coast, GeneCol Res Ctr, Sippy Downs, Qld 4556, Australia 6.Univ Alberta, Dept Biol Sci, Biol Sci Ctr, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada 7.Nanyang Technol Univ, Sch Biol Sci, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551, Singapore
Recommended Citation:
Longford, Sharon R.,Campbell, Alexandra H.,Nielsen, Shaun,et al. Interactions within the microbiome alter microbial interactions with host chemical defences and affect disease in a marine holobiont[J]. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS,2019-01-01,9